SerbRansom virus - How to remove

A Serbian ransomware infection has been born, but its presence in the cyber world is weak (at least for now). People are not reporting this variant in action and such lack of complaints must mean that SerbRansom virus is yet to be involved in malicious spam campaigns or other trendy crafts of transmission. However, some of the characteristics of this infection are rather peculiar, and our research group finds it crucial to discuss them in more detail. A front-page remark should be mentioned: encryption that SerbRansom virus explains to initiate does not appear to show signs of functionality. Another claim of file-deletion every five minutes is also found false. Long story short, we have definitely witnessed more horrific variants of ransomware, with highly-developed encryption process. But the quirky features of SerbRansom virus do not end here: it is actually designed with a builder, allowing people to design their own variation.

Strategic maneuvers of SerbRansom virus

After reading the introductory part of this article, you will probably be easily consumed with the notion that SerbRansom virus is nothing but a joke. We feel too cautious to quickly underestimated this specific variant due to the fact that you can never know when a malicious spam campaign would strike and distribute a payload of SerbRansom virus. As we managed to discover, even if the current version would begin its journey through the World Wide Web, it would not be a complicated virus to defeat. As it came to light, SerbRansom infection is more of a poor-quality threat that shows relatively flimsy encryption, while its source code is not sophisticated as well. So, to risk assuming too quickly, but we have reason to believe that security researchers would quite quickly come with counter moves to make free file-decryption possible. Below, you can see the ransom note which is to be displayed to the victims of SerbRansom virus. In addition to that, the ransomware also incorporates an audio song to complement the message.

Since SerbRansom virus contains some flaws, specialists have managed to come up with a potential cyber criminal, suspected of designing SerbRansom virus and the builder for it. The name that hacker uses as his alias is R4z0rx0r. It appears that this person is involved in a bunch of shenanigans already and decided to drop an even wider net to catch some more fish. In addition to that, the builder that has been created for SerbRansom could be used for purposes to make a profit. If there are any new about this variant, we are sure to inform you. For now, this sample remains to be overshadowed by more fancy infections. Lastly, if the variant starts to spread, a potential extension to feature encrypted files is completely inappropriate: .ifuckedyou. Since SerbRansom virus has a builder, other variants might co-exist.

Decryption process and SerbRansom virus

Since SerbRansom virus is not identified to be of an extremely high-quality, a decryption process could be easier to accomplish. If the ransomware begins to be reported by people, then security researchers will definitely try to produce a file-recovery tool. Let’s wait and see if our predictions turn out to be true. Also, we also arrived to the point, like clockwork, we are to inform our visitors that they should be prepared to stand against ransomware infections. They can do this by storing their files in backup storages or USB flash drives, whichever they prefer. However, if you store your data in flash drives, do not keep them plugged into your computer. If a ransomware virus makes its ways into your system, it will encrypt all of the data it possibly can.

What about distribution of SerbRansom virus?

Well, we have already emphasized on the aspect that SerbRansom virus is not distributed in any major campaigns. For this reason, until now, people rarely got infected with it. We hope that the creator of this ransomware won’t improve it and then begin distributing it all over the Internet. Then malicious spam campaigns could be initiated, or exploit kits exploited. Be extremely careful during your browsing. When you check your email account, please do not open letters that stand-out and look quite suspicious. Especially avoid downloading appended files, especially if they are Microsoft Word documents, as malicious macros inside them are a popular trick to use.

Speaking about removal of SerbRansom virus, you should remember that an anti-malware tool will always do a better job than a manual removal. A proper security software will detect all traces of malware and make sure to protect you from them in the future. Spyhunter or Hitman are three reliable tools that you should not be anxious to use.

How to recover SerbRansom virus encrypted files and remove the virus

Step 1. Restore system into last known good state using system restore

1. Reboot your computer to Safe Mode with Command Prompt:

for Windows 7 / Vista/ XP

• Start → Shutdown → Restart → OK.
• Press F8 key repeatedly until Advanced Boot Options window appears.
• Choose Safe Mode with Command Prompt.

for Windows 8 / 10

• Press Power at Windows login screen. Then press and hold Shift key and click Restart.
• Choose Troubleshoot → Advanced Options → Startup Settings and click Restart.
• When it loads, select Enable Safe Mode with Command Prompt from the list of Startup Settings.

 

2.Restore System files and settings.

• When Command Prompt mode loads, enter cd restore and press Enter.
• Then enter rstrui.exe and press Enter again.
• Click “Next” in the windows that appeared.
• Select one of the Restore Points that are available before SerbRansom ransomware has infiltrated to your system and then click “Next”.
• To start System restore click “Yes”.

 

Step 2. Complete removal of SerbRansom virus

After restoring your system, it is recommended to scan your computer with an anti-malware program, like Spyhunter and remove all malicious files related to SerbRansom ransomware. You can check other tools here.  

Step 3. Restore SerbRansom virus affected files using Shadow Volume Copies

If you do not use System Restore option on your operating system, there is a chance to use shadow copy snapshots. They store copies of your files that point of time when the system restore snapshot was created. Usually SerbRansom ransomware tries to delete all possible Shadow Volume Copies, so this methods may not work on all computers. However, it may fail to do so. Shadow Volume Copies are only available with Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8. There are two ways to retrieve your files via Shadow Volume Copy. You can do it using native Windows Previous Versions or via Shadow Explorer. a) Native Windows Previous Versions Right-click on an encrypted file and select Properties → Previous versions tab. Now you will see all available copies of that particular file and the time when it was stored in a Shadow Volume Copy. Choose the version of the file you want to retrieve and click Copy if you want to save it to some directory of your own, or Restore if you want to replace existing, encrypted file. If you want to see the content of file first, just click Open.

b) Shadow Explorer It is a program that can be found online for free. You can download either a full or a portable version of Shadow Explorer. Open the program. On the left top corner select the drive where the file you are looking for is a stored. You will see all folders on that drive. To retrieve a whole folder, right-click on it and select “Export”. Then choose where you want it to be stored.

Step 4. Use Data Recovery programs to recover SerbRansom virus encrypted files

There are several data recovery programs that might recover encrypted files as well. This does not work in all cases but you can try this:

• We suggest using another PC and connect the infected hard drive as slave. It is still possible to do this on infected PC though.
• Download a data recovery program.
• Install and scan for recently deleted files.

Note: In many cases it is impossible to restore data files affected by modern ransomware. Thus I recommend using decent cloud backup software as precaution. We recommend checking out Carbonite, BackBlaze, CrashPlan or Mozy Home.